Wicklow-native, singer songwriter Hozier has been blown away for the massive support for the video for “Take Me to Church” which garnered over 80,000 views on YouTube in 24 hours.

The music video he made with Feel Good Lost now has over 140,000 and has been chosen among the staff picks on Vimeo.

Hozier said the video was inspired by the increase in violence against gay people in Russia. He told TheJournal.ie “The song was always about humanity at its most natural, and how that is undermined ceaselessly by religious organisations and those who would have us believe they act in its interests. What has been seen growing in Russia is no less than nightmarish, I proposed bringing these themes into the story and Brendan [Canty, director] liked the idea.”